Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier in the week, the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment issued a good statement about the NWT apprenticeship and trades strategy. The Minister's statement described efforts to connect industry and employers through partnerships in education and training. I am wondering: can the Minister give us more detail on industry partnerships the government has developed to support increased training and employment and how are we going to get these kids in front of potential employers? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First off, I just want to thank the Member for his support and encouragement for our students participating in the National Skills Canada Competition, and good luck to those students as well. We do have some really good students up here in the skills area. Along with the strategy that we did table earlier and made comments about, we do have a board that is made up of mostly industry. It is an industry-driven board. So they do a lot of the work and we work through that board to get a lot of this information out. They come up with a lot of the ideas on how we should move forward in terms of putting the strategy forward, and in the strategy we do have a lot of key actions that we are going to be working to complete and address, and it is mostly through this industry-driven board and working with our department that we are going to be focusing on getting those students into the job industry.
Thank you to the Minister for his reply and his acknowledgement to my Member's statement. I appreciate that. Mr. Speaker, in the Minister's statement he also talked about how they will be implementing incentives for employers and in particular encouraging target groups like Indigenous residents and women to consider careers in the trades and that is good, but I would like to elaborate with the Minister and ask him: can he describe the ways in which the department will encourage the women and Indigenous people themselves to participate in trades and apprenticeship?
The resources that are going to be used to encourage this is through the schools. We will talk with students in the schools, as well as our career development officers, our employment transition officers that go out into the communities and actually get this information to those that might be on income assistance or looking at a career moving forward, and most recently we also made an announcement and an improvement into our small community employment support program that does on-the-job training, so we will work with our Aboriginal groups. As you heard earlier, one of my colleagues mentioned that we do have these bilateral meetings and this is something that we can continue to support and work together with our stakeholders and partners throughout the Northwest Territories to encourage more Indigenous people getting to the trades or into the workforce, as well as women into the trades and other workforces.
Thank you to the Minister once again for a good answer on that. I think the small community support program will be an excellent way in which to accomplish that. Mr. Speaker, the Minister's statement says that approximately 4,700 apprentices have been certified under the government's apprenticeship program. That is, in my view, a success. Does the department have any figures to indicate how many of those people remain in the NWT currently? Have we been tracking northern employment retention in the trades?
That is one of the goals of our strategy, is to keep a northern workforce here in the North working, as well as looking at recruiting others to come up here and help industry for the in-demand jobs that we are seeing that is out there. I don't have the exact data in front of me of how many are still here and how many we are recruiting, but I can get that information for the Member and share it with him.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and yes, I would agree that that is an important aspect. I mean, if we are the ones putting the effort and the investment into our youth and having them become successful trades journeypeople, well, then we would like to see them stay here in the North and be contributors here. Mr. Speaker, we obviously live in changing times. I would like to know: how does the department ensure that it stays on top of changing industry trends and technical innovations to make sure that our apprentices and tradespeople have the most up-to-date knowledge and skills possible? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and with our Apprenticeship, Trades and Occupational Certification Board, when we have meetings with them, get updates, we will ensure that. This is a concern of the Member, but I am sure they stay on top of it. It is industry-driven, so anything new and innovative that we are doing in industry, I am sure the board is on top of that. I have full trust and confidence that they are working in the best interests of industry, but also in the best interests of Northerners, and we will make sure that is part of the next discussions that we have with the board.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
